My husband and I are raving about our Patiomate screen enclosure! This is the second we've purchased. The first was about 14 years ago, when we added a large one to our park-model trailer at the lake. We enjoyed it for almost 10 years. The only mishap was when a windstorm brought a huge tree branch down on us that punctured the canopy--and replacing it was easy. We took it down and stored it every winter. We bought a new 7'8" by 11'6" Patiomate this summer to install on our new deck at home. The improvements are great, especially the sliding door. Russ installed it himself in two afternoons. Admittedly there was some confusion when it came to changing the location of the door; the instructions really ARE cryptic. But we called the 800 number, and a super patient and knowledgeable woman was able to answer our questions perfectly. If you run into problems with interpretation, here's the simple secret: CALL RIGHT AWAY! My husband did it wrong a couple times before I convinced him to turn to the experts. Typical male thing! I repeat -- call for help right away and save the frustration. The solution was quite simple. The screen enclosure has absolutely made our summer. Shade -- no bugs -- protection from rain -- and it's stood up just fine through a number of windy and severe thunderstorms.

You really need to take your time assembling. I took about 15 to 20 hours, with a helper for just a few parts. I did it a few hours at a time and pre-read the instructions several steps ahead. You will almost certainly end up doing some things over because of the poor instructions. Read ahead and it will help you figure out if you are leaving something out. I sprayed the roof seems with silicone spray and they leaked the first time it rained. Very annoying. The instructions recommended silicone spray or tent wax, so I guess I need to go get some wax. Would have been nice to avoid that problem or do it while it was still on the ground. The instructions were bad and I knew that from other reviews. Just plan on taking it slow and don't try to finish it with a deadline. If the instructions were better, this would have been a snap. I could do a second installation in half the time. There were no missing parts and a few extra screws and bolts. I will try to upload a few pix that help clarify things that were easy to do wrong. I could not install it where I wanted to because I had windows that were too tall...they would have interfered with the horizontal furring strip. See the picture. Fortunately, I had a second possible location to mount it. It would have been nice to know before buying that the furring strip needs to be obstruction free in order to mount the horizontal furring stip at 94" to as low as 89" (at the top edge of the 2x4). My windows were about 1' too tall to be enclosed by this enclosure. You will probably need to get the recommended 2x4 furring and fasteners to attach to the siding. This model needs 141" across the top and two vertical pieces 94" long at the most. I decided to prime and paint them to match the house and now I am really glad I took the time. The screens can handle a little bit of uneven deck up to a point. But you will need to get some deck screws or other fasteners to fasten the anchor brackets to the deck or floor. Now that it is installed, I can see that I am really going to like it. But before I get some decent furniture in it I want to be sure I can get the seam leaks fixed. It does not appear possible to make it 100% bug proof, but it is pretty close. The quality of the parts is pretty good. It would have been nice if there were predrilled holes in the rafter tubes. You will really appreciate having a good cordless drill and drill bits along with some tips for the screws. Overal, a pretty good value for the money and a lot cheaper than building a screened porch!

I bought this product online without ever seeing it, I would do it again it is better than I expected. The insturction can be a little confusing but the pictures help. It took 3 people 1-1/2 days to assemble. I have enjoyed this product with my family. I would also suggest using seam sealer some of the area where the stiching is small drops of water come down in really heavy rain only.